Once again weather conditions threw the Truman Division anglers a major league curveball, this time in the form of inundating rains that had the lake on a fast rise. Along with the rising water, leaves, grass, and “sawdust” made lure presentation difficult to the ever-repositioning fish. Nonetheless, the quality of the division anglers is such that there is always a team that cracks the code, which proved difficult as only 6 limits were brought to the scales by the 53 boat field. The difficult conditions made weighing in a fish that much more important in the quest for points and the chance to qualify for the Joe Bass Team Trails Championship at Table Rock Lake in October.
Besting the field on a tough day was the veteran team of Kevin Johnston and Roger Waters. As could be expected, the duo pitched black and blue jigs, along with a brush hog, to amass their winning weight of 15.08 pounds. Included in their sack was the Ozarks Chevrolet big bass of the event, a 5.37 pound lunker. Roger shared their Sport Boats USA Key for Success was sticking to their flipping presentation although they had to relocate to mainlake areas due to muddy conditions in their normal haunts.
14.24 pounds secured second place and the Joe Bass Highest Finishing Skeeter award for the team of Ronnie Kane and Cory Steckler. They targeted shallow flat banks with spinnerbatis and jigs, staying in 4’ of water or less. As has been said, it pays to run a Skeeter as the team took home the Joe Bass bonus for fishing out of Ronnie’s ZX250.
Rounding out the top three was Jack Young and Bill McAvoy. They pitched lizards and brush hogs to catch 12.55 pounds of Truman bass. Jack noted they found their fish holding to the original bank line in 10-12’ of water.
The next event in the Truman Division is May 21st at 6:00 am, Shawnee Bend Ramp.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 5.37 | 15.08 | 110 | $1,790.00 | 1BB | |
| 2 | Ronnie Kane – Cory Steckler | 5 | 0.5 | 4.32 | 14.24 | 109 | $2,116.00 | Top Skeeter |
| 3 | Jack Young – Bill McAvoy | 5 | 4.29 | 12.55 | 108 | $700.00 | ||
| 4 | Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 5 | 2.77 | 12.1 | 107 | $644.00 | ||
| 5 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 5 | 3.25 | 11.56 | 106 | $400.00 | ||
| 6 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 2.92 | 10.51 | 105 | $300.00 | ||
| 7 | Ron Peek – Grieg Engel | 4 | 4.71 | 9.73 | 104 | $200.00 | ||
| 8 | Edward Robinson – Kyle Morse | 3 | 9.05 | 103 | $180.00 | |||
| 9 | Kevin Carl – Desmon Carl | 4 | 8.68 | 102 | $150.00 | |||
| 10 | Tim Hintenach – Dustin Hinkle | 4 | 7.92 | 101 | $130.00 | |||
| 11 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 3 | 4.21 | 7.58 | 100 | |||
| 12 | David McCormick – *fished alone | 4 | 7.35 | 99 | ||||
| 13 | John Bennett – Paden Bennett | 3 | 7.23 | 98 | ||||
| 14 | John Campbell – Chuck Roberts | 2 | 5 | 7.09 | 97 | $200.00 | 2BB | |
| 15 | Matt Gunter – Bobby Williams | 3 | 6.21 | 96 | ||||
| 16 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 3 | 2.45 | 5.93 | 95 | |||
| 17 | Matt Garrett – Kaleb Rook | 3 | 3.46 | 5.79 | 94 | |||
| 18 | Roy Butler – Anthony Scoma | 3 | 5.55 | 93 | ||||
| 19 | Shawn Crabtree – *Dallas Crabtree | 4 | 5.35 | 92 | ||||
| 20 | Doug Wallace – Ozzie Wallace | 1 | 4.89 | 4.89 | 91 | |||
| 21 | Brian Foster – Neil Sword | 2 | 4.88 | 90 | ||||
| 22 | Wayne Garrison – Robbie Plowman | 2 | 4.87 | 89 | ||||
| 23 | Phillip Schwartz – Colby Schwartz | 3 | 4.82 | 88 | ||||
| 24 | Rusty Darnell – *DeWayne Weeks | 2 | 4.71 | 87 | ||||
| 25 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 1 | 4.06 | 4.06 | 86 | |||
| 26 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 2 | 2.63 | 3.61 | 85 | |||
| 27 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 1 | 3.12 | 3.12 | 84 | |||
| 28 | Kevin Smith – Jerry McCutchen | 1 | 2.85 | 2.85 | 83 | |||
| 29 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 1 | 2.38 | 2.38 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 1 | 1.83 | 1.83 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Mike Thomas – *Debbie Thomas | 1 | 1.29 | 1.29 | 80 | |||
| 32 | Dan Weber – Robert Leininger | 1 | 0.92 | 0.92 | 79 | |||
| 33 | Richard Evans – *Lorne Shepard | 1 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 78 | |||
| 34 | Lyle Armstrong – Bob King | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Chad Bush – *Joe Bennett | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Danny Carter – Chris Carter | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Junior Fiedler – Cody Fielder | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Chris Flood – Brandon Flood | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jesse Gardner – Mark Glover | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Troy Hardie – Tommie Hutchenson | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Richard Johnson – Charles Cadenhead | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jared Knuth – | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Ed Matthews – Gus Beitz | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Tom McGovern – Bob Bradley | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Russell Potter – Rick Potter | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jason Swarnigan – Carl Scott | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Mike Ward – | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Marty Watson – Doug Long | 0 | 10 |
*alternate